Here, here Tim Martyn. Very well said. The Federal Government knows damned well that there ARE no jobs for unskilled workers, however they keep on with the same old "blame the bludgers" line to explain the runaway cost of social security whilst at the same time slurping from the trough of their greedy lifestyles. For thirty years, I lived modestly off the income derived from mostly factory work. In 2001, I left a full time factory position due to poor health caused by excessive lifting and dust inhalation and took up nursing as a mature age student. I had to survive two years on "Newstart" to put myself through the TAFE course at my own expense. Even though the job agency knew that my best hope of obtaining employment was to complete the course, I was still made to jump through the demoralising hoops of Centerlink despite the fact that I'd paid taxes for thirty years prior. After wearing all that, the best I can obtain at my age is part time work in my chosen career. I've now become one of the working poor with little hope of anything better than the part time contract I'm now saddled with. Time all Governments got their act together and sorted this mess out. Wildcat.

Last night on Today Tonight there was a segment on "skilled" workers being hired overseas in the Phillipines. Australian workers with the necessary skills were also interviewed and they said that the jobs the Philipinos were taking had never been advertised in Australia. The program also mentioned that migrant workers were often paid less than award wages.

A friend who had worked for the railways asks
"which is better?
to have a person doing a low paid job that involves a lot of hanging around,
or leave them on centrelink benefits?"

Blaming the victim is mean, cruel and ultimately doesn't solve the problem.

Tim Martin you have the right idea, but it will be difficult to put your proposals to the test. for a start the government have a economic management system in place that ensures we always have 6% of surplus workers, if we had no surplus,, workers would be paid what they are worth, one day we will all be working for the dole if the present trend continues, we should give all the surplus workers a job or train them, this does not happen, instead workers are brought here from overseas, to ensure the majic figure of 6% is not lowered, this is what drives the labour market, keeps wages low, profits high
Calling surplus workers unemployed workers shifts the blame onto those who do not create jobs. the job creators are responsible for the surplus, social security is also a handout, the government should be handing out jobs not money. it is time we blamed those who are responsible for creating jobs,
We need to force the government to give every person who has no job a start, instead of ensureing profits keep going through the roof, we need to be truthful , workers who have had no job create for them are surplus , full stop.

Having worked for a large international corporation I was tangentially involved in a social program run to bring long term unemployed into the work force in the Bedford-Styvesant district of Harlem, New York. The company set up a factory initially hiring about 50 people (later expanded to 150) to assemble computer cables.

The program was ultimately successful and the factory was able to bid on more technologically advanced production. However, getting to the point of being a productive manufacturing facility was a long and difficult process for both the company and the employees.

Many of the employees did not know what it meant to show up at work on time every day. Initially there were many discussions about the importance of being at work every day and then if the truancies continued employees were not paid for time not worked and their semi annual personal performance evaluations were lowered. This affected annual salary increases or in some cases negated them. Ultimately most of the workers were able to conform to a normal working day. Some were left behind

Most of the employees were required to attend remedial reading and writing classes (paid for by the company) due to semi illiteracy.

This company also paid university or tech school fees for any employees desiring to better their skills on their own time.

PART 2

It took about 3 years to get this factory running at a dependable rate of production with an acceptable level of quality.

It was several years later before the factory was able to take on more high tech manufacturing. At that time the factory had acquired the level of cost management and quality control required of other corporate manufacturing facilities world wide.

This program was not taken on lightly by the corporation. It was done to prove a point. The long term unemployed could be taken on and, with adequate training and incentives, perform at a competitive level. Also it was imperative that the company have a free hand to be able to sack workers that were not willing to contribute or conform to reasonable work/safety standards (mostly these were a lot of drug/alcohol problems).

A government could never have run this type of program on it's own. The only way to make this type of program work successfully is through incentives to private corporate enterprise. Tax breaks to cover the years of substandard productivity and corporate investment are required as is protection from union meddling.
As has been demonstrated over the past few years in Australia farming this type of skill training out to non-profit organizations just does not work

Bruce,
Were the wages paid to these people the USA basic wage of $5.15 per hour? If so no incentive was provided for people to turn up every day. Government subsidies amont to corporate welfare, instead of private welfare. If private welfare in this countery is suppoesed to carry a mutual obligation, what obligation does corporate welfare carry?

Inspiration comes from people bettering their lifestyle, which does not occur when the wages paid $12.75 Aus, offers no incentive to people to work, let alone work hard. It's time this country assessed its view to raising the basic wage, if not you will continue to see a shift of low income workforce to other locations where they can afford their rent, and to do more than merely survive.

When this occurs, who will do the console operator job at the servo's, the clerks jobs, the shop assistants jobs? Low wages lead to low work performances, and in a nation of rising property values, low income families are forced out of the very places that need low income labour. Townsville, N.Q. for example is experiencing this at the moment, rents consume 40-50% of low income pays, food is also expensive, people move on.